Another

~Fender~

The date was magnificent. I really thought that Norah was already into me. We were like a real couple, having a great time together, nice dinner, and many more. We really spent a great time together the whole day. The sky was already dark and we still had the happiest time at the amusement park near the edge of Moonlight Hills. We were playing games, eating ice cream and candies, sitting on the bench and seeing how beautiful and bright the moon was. It seemed like every burden in my shoulders was lifted. I felt like free, the happiest guy in the world. But we hadn’t kissed the whole day. I just waited for the right time to come.

Norah shot her arrow and she hit at right point three times in a row. The game keeper only gulped when he realized that he would be bankrupt that day. We laughed and I received the prize from him who looked like so desperate.

“Just one more time,” I said.

She shook her head, “No, Fender. Don’t you look at him? He really begs me to stop,” she whispered in my ear.

And the game keeper finally spoke, “Little girl, I think I’m going to close.”

Norah smiled to the keeper, “You don’t need to, Sir. I’ll stop,” she took all the prizes from me and gave it back to the keeper, “You can keep it. We just do it for fun,” she said. I heard the keeper said thanks God with relieved.

I grasp her waist and brought her away, “That’s very kind of you, Ma'am.”

“Oh, I’m flattered, Sir,” she replied with chuckle.

Suddenly I stopped. My eyes then wandered around as I turned my body. I thought I felt something unusual. Norah quickly realized that something happened to me.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, her face turned more serious.

My eyes still wandered around, “I think,” I said, and then I looked at her, “I feel another werewolf here,” I whispered.

“Carter Dale?” she made sure.

I shook my head, “No. I remember his smell. It’s not him,” I said, and then I started to sniff around. I moved to the area where I thought the smell of that werewolf was. Norah just followed me at my back.

I see him, I thought. I saw a guy walked several meters away from me. I couldn’t see his face since he wore a black jacket with a hood on his head, but I was sure that he was a male.

“That’s him,” I pointed to the guy who walked slowly, “I’m sure it’s him.”

He then looked at me, and suddenly ran away. I thought he also realized about me, and seeing me staring at him made him surprised somehow.

Norah quickly grabbed my hand and chased him, “After him, Fender!”

We ran, chasing him who ran step away in front of me. We didn’t care when people looked at us oddly. That was like a movie where the good guy was chasing the bad guy. He seemed to push away all the people around him and he got their scolding because of that.

That guy ran into the forest, leaving the area of the amusement park. I didn’t know why he chose that gloomy place to hide. It seemed that he didn’t want us to talk to him. It made me more suspicious. We kept chasing him until finally he stopped running and turned to us.

He opened his hood and we could see his face clearly as the moon’s light shone his face directly. I could see his gold eyes and his emotion began to change his face a little. He growled, showing his fangs. I thought that his face was familiar. I began to think hard, until finally I realize that actually I really knew him.

“I know him,” I said, “He’s one of the workers at The Tavern. But I didn’t see him lately. I think that alpha turned him. He’s another beta.”

He suddenly howled for a long time. I could see Norah’s face became a bit anxious. She grabbed something behind her stocking, a pair of very thin but sharp daggers both on her legs.

“Be careful, Fender. It seems that he’s trying to call for reinforcement. You did it last time, remember?” she said.

My eyes bugged out, “So, he’s trying to call the alpha?” I asked.

“Maybe,” she replied.

But after his howl was over, I felt more terrible. I could hear not only one, but several persons who were approaching us. I got myself closer to Norah, and it seemed that she also realized about the danger that coming to us.

We could see several people coming from any direction, 6 persons exactly and all of them were werewolves. They were in a half-shifted form, and all looked so frightening. I was shocked, actually both of us. I knew some of them. Although they were already shifted, I still remembered the face. One of them was a middle-age beggar who often crossed at my school. Also, I hadn’t seen him lately. Another was a teen girl in my neighborhood. That was a trap!

It was crazy. The alpha had already created her werewolf army. It was beyond my imagination.

“Do you think they’re from this town?” Norah asked.

“I believe so,” I answered, “So, what are we going to do now, Norah? Do you think we will win against them?” I asked her back.

The ex-worker of the Tavern, the guy who was chased by us for the first time, suddenly spoke, “Of course not. You’d better follow us and come to the Mistress, I will spare your friend’s life,” he said, “We are your pack.”

“Why are you following that sick alpha?” I asked, more like mocked them, “She ruins my life.”

“No, Young boy,” he didn’t agree, “What she did is giving us the true meaning of this life. You come to her and she will show you how great to become a werewolf. We’re so powerful together,” he said, “You can’t do it alone without your master. We have already in control and it takes short time. You won’t regret.”

“Your words won’t have any effect on me. I won’t follow a murderer like her,” I yelled.

He smiled, showing his fangs in his mouth, “So, you prefer the hard way, Young boy. Mistress wants us to take you,” he said, “Guys, you can kill the girl, but keep the boy alive. It’s Mistress’ order.”

Norah and I were in a very bad situation. Moreover, Norah didn’t bring her best weapon. She was an archer and all she got was her pair of knives. We would be doom. We kept on action, be ready to face their attack whatever it took.

But all of us stopped moving when suddenly a woman popped out from the ground. It was like she materialized from inside the ground, I didn’t know how she did it, just like a ghost that can pass through things. We were shocked, we all were.

She was beautiful, wearing a black dress and a black mini skirt with a full transparent and dark stocking on her legs. There was a black scarf on her neck and somehow, she looked like the one who wanted to go to funeral. Her blond wavy hair was blown by the wind, made her appearance looked so cool. She was taller than Norah and quite tall for a woman. She smiled faintly. We still didn’t know who she really was, a friend or a foe.

“Who are you?” the werewolf guy yelled with anger.

But she spoke very soft, “Seven versus two. What an unfair situation!”

After hearing her words, we realized that she was on our side. I felt a bit relieved. But deep in my heart I wondered, who is she anyway?

The werewolf guy just grinned, “Seven to three still seems a little bit unfair, I think. You don’t change anything, Lady,” he said confidently.

But she replied him with a very evil grin, “Who says?”

We all furrowed. Then I saw her mouth was whispering something. I could hear it and I thought they also could hear it.

“Quinque miles fero,” she said in a language I didn’t recognize. I thought it was a spell.

Then for the second time, we all were made shocked by that woman after we saw several people suddenly appeared around her. There were five of them. Who are they, I wondered. But I heard Norah whispered something she didn’t intend to share to other. Necromancer, she said. And when I realized that the woman was really a necromancer, I just remembered the great power that every Necromancer had.

“A full reanimation spell,” then I whispered.

There were two females and three males. Their sight was empty, showing that they were fully in her control. I believed that all of them were corpses. For the first time, I saw a zombie. Fortunately, they didn’t look so scary at all.

“Now who’s at the disadvantage position?” she mocked those werewolves.

One of those werewolves suddenly growled and attacked them with her fast movement. But without a blink of our eyes, one of the reanimation corpses successfully grasped the werewolf’s head, and then twisted her head until the head was detached from the body. Her body fell as her head rolling on the ground. God, I really wanted to throw up.

The guy who had just killed the werewolf, the one who looked so pale and sick and I believed that he was a vampire, stood still. His expression was empty, no emotion at all and suddenly I became so thrilled.

“He’s so fast,” I murmured.

“He’s a pureblood, Fender,” Norah said, and then she grasped my arm, “Just wait and see. I believe she will show another astonishing performance after this.”

The woman chuckled, still in her position, “Now, how about you face your superior?”

One of the female zombies suddenly moved. Her eyes turned red and I remember who had that type of eyes.

She’s an alpha, I figured.

Of course, I was right. Who else has a pair of glowing red eyes beside the alphas? She began to turn into her full-shifted form. Thrilling but amazing. I could feel her body was reconstructed and grew bigger, turning into big wolf monster.

The guy who we chased before couldn’t hide his fear, all of them couldn’t. Facing a pureblood then an alpha was a very obvious suicide, even if their number was large. He yelled, ordering them to retreat. But they were late. The alpha already began her move and pounced one of those running werewolves, turn him into several pieces of meat.

Again, I felt I couldn’t see any of these massacres. Nevertheless, I felt so curious at the same time.

The show wasn’t over yet. A zombie guy who wore a mail like a soldier in the ancient time, suddenly turned into a really big bull-headed monster and a red smoke was floating up when he suddenly turned. From the first time, I wondered what creature that man was. He was different from the others. His skin was red and his face was a bit fierce. He looked like human, but actually he was far from human.

“What is it, Norah?” I asked as I looked up to his face since he became a very big and tall monster.

“That’s a genie, Fender,” she said.

So that’s a genie, I thought. Again, I felt thrilled yet amazed by the thing I just had seen then. I couldn’t believe that actually I could see a genie in front of me, the thing that I thought I could only see in the movie.

The genie breathed a fire to those werewolves who still tried to run away. Two of them were burned and several seconds later after their frightening scream was over, they become very ugly burnt corpses.

While we seriously watched the genie burned those werewolves, the other female zombie had already showed her true form. She had white wings and she floated as the wind suddenly blowing fast around us. I began to wonder, what is she? Is she an angel? But I thought, does angel look so scary like her, with her eyes all white and shining like an evil witch I ever watched in the movie?

From her hands, there was suddenly a thunder that struck the remaining werewolves. All of them were burnt into crisps, almost became ashes. What she did was crueler than what the genie did.

And the last guy suddenly raised his hands, and then all the werewolves’ corpses were burnt by the sudden fire that I didn’t know where it came from, turning those bodies into true ashes. Those ashes were flown toward the guy and flew around him. His mouth moved, seemed like casting an incantation, then those ashes were finally gone as he stopped his ritual.

I remembered something about the book of witch I’d ever read that a necromancer could hold a ritual by sacrificing fresh dead bodies and extract them to become the source of power.

“Expletus,” the woman casted a spell again and all her zombies disappeared in a sudden just like how they appeared previously.

Both I and Norah were gasping. We couldn’t say anything. That was so fast and frightening. I thought I would never ever forget about that thing all my life. When we couldn’t speak any word, she turned and walked away.

But suddenly I called her, “Wait,” still gasping just like doing a marathon, I saw her stopped and turned her head to us. “Thank you. Who are you really?” I asked.

“You don’t have to know me. And no need to thanks, just consider you’re lucky,” her head turned again and her body was materialized then she sunk into the ground. She was really gone and the situation became quiet just like previously. We both still stared at where she disappeared. I saw Norah’s face, she looked so shocked.

“Who is she, Norah?” I finally asked her.

Norah nodded, “Actually I don’t know about her. But I have heard about a very powerful witch, a necromancer that has all the mightiest creatures as the reanimation corpses, a pureblood vampire, an alpha werewolf, an infamous general genie from Ifrit tribe, a great fairy queen, and a powerful necromancer,” she explained.

“So, the woman with the wings was a fairy queen? By the way, what is a fairy queen?” I asked.

She looked at me, “The leader of all fairies, the noblest among them, the chosen from the royal fairy. Fairy queen or king was believed to be the most powerful creature in the world. But you know that fairy’s power was greatly decreasing when they’re not in their own world. But still, I think they are a very worthy opponent.”

I smiled like a dumb person, and chuckled, “Yeah. She’s right. We just have to consider that we’re lucky, Norah,” I relieved, “At least, she’s not a bad guy so we don’t have to worry that she will destroy the world with her mighty power,” I was joking.

But Norah seemed to be not bought by my joke, “I wonder what she is doing in this peaceful town. I bet she was in search of something precious,” she guessed.

“Maybe she just wants to have a vacation,” I said.

Norah sighed, “Let’s hope that everything’s going to be all right. Come on, Fender, we’d better go home,” she said while she walked away.

Wait a minute. This is not the ending date I really expect for. No kiss? No even hug? I just think that Norah doesn’t have desire anymore to do something more romantic, I thought and I was doomed.

She seemed to think about something. But I wondered, what she was thinking about.